The Mind's Eye by: Rene Echevarria from a story by: Rene Echevarria and Ken Schafer and directed by: David Livingston

 

“The Mind’s Eye” is written by: René Echevarria, from a story by: Ken Schafer and René Echevarria, and is directed by: David Livingston.  It was produced under production code 198, was the 24^th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 4, the 98^th episode overall, and was broadcast on May 27, 1991.

 

The pop culture depiction of enemy agents brainwashing a hero to infiltrate and assassinate has its roots in The Manchurian Candidate, a book and film that Star Trek: The Next Generation directly plays homage to in “The Mind’s Eye”.  As an episode, “The Mind’s Eye” is quite good, it’s best scene is actually the final scene after the resolution where Geordi La Forge, his brainwashing broken, is receiving counseling from Deanna Troi, indicating that there is still lingering trauma.  He remembers his time on Risa, memories implanted by the Romulans attempting the assassination of Klingon governor Vagh.  It’s a tiny little character moment, but like The Best of Both Worlds and “Family” it’s one of those little moments that have been cropping up in Star Trek: The Next Generation since the previous season.  The smallness of the moment is enough in René Echevarria’s script to stick out as integral for making the episode work.  It also gives LeVar Burton a chance to really put his heart into the performance of loss and just how terrifying it is to be aware of a loss of control.  That loss of control of oneself has become a recurring idea in this season of the show, for better and worse.  Giving Marina Sirtis the small chance to play Troi as an actual counsellor is also a breath of fresh air, especially after the previous episode reducing the female characters to relationships with men.  It’s the only thing of note that Troi does in “The Mind’s Eye” and yet it feels like an important piece for her character.

 

Echevarira’s script for “The Mind’s Eye” is a fairly simple story, it is a Cold War style brainwashing thriller with Geordi as the victim.  The Manchurian Candidate is directly paralleled in the plot and in David Livingston’s direction.  Livingston lights the episode like a film, quite dramatically.  The brainwashing sequence is quite horrific for an episode of television broadcast in 1991, Livingston framing Geordi’s face in the center of the screen and adding a small amount of light to his eyes in such a way that emphasizes the trauma.  Geordi’s disability is being used against him, all shown through Livingston’s direction and that framing of the eyes.  Because Geordi’s visor is taken away, Burton is wearing the contacts that completely make his eyes sclera which have been used before, but here they become representation of him losing himself to the brainwashing.  Through the rest of the episode, the brainwashing is played as sinister as Geordi La Forge is depicted as going about his duties as per normal, with no indication of brainwashing outside of actions that the audience would recognize as sabotage.  Echevarria does spend much of the time on the B-plot of the episode with governor Cah and Klingon ambassador Kell.  It’s mostly a reflection on where Worf’s honor is and how Picard and the Enterprise are still upholding his position as security chief.

 

There is a reading of “The Mind’s Eye” as setup for future plotlines on the show.  Now when writing these reviews I actually do not know where the future of Star Trek: The Next Generation is going, this is the first time I have seen the show.  This is an episode that by placing so much emphasis on Worf’s honor feels like setting up either the season finale or a future event episode of the season.  The conclusion is that ambassador Kell, played by Larry Dobkin, is in fact in league with the Romulans in orchestrating the assassination attempt and that in Klingon society there are some secretly glad that Worf, despite losing his honor in the process, acted in the way that he did.  There is also the quite odd casting choice of Denise Crosby as a shadowy figure during the brainwashing.  This is one of those appearances that is clearly meant to fuel speculation as to what the Romulans are planning, the audience picking up that it is Crosby, but not quite clear on who she is playing.  There is not really an obvious choice for the role and Crosby in the short performance does not play it as Tasha Yar, and while I would like to speculate that it is an evil, mirror universe version of Tasha or something else, it is clearly a tease that only a television show could do.  Hopefully this is a tease that will pay off this season as it would be odd to build it up only two episodes before the finale for a plot point that could come at any point in the fifth season.

 

Overall, “The Mind’s Eye” is made memorable because of much of the style elevating the substance.  Directly writing a pastiche of a piece of pop culture is actually a good trick for television and David Livingston is a director whose style is incredibly cinematic.  This is an excellent tutorial in how to dramatically light an episode of television.  It’s quite a good episode even by being at its core a basic pastiche of The Manchurian Candidate.  7/10.